Alex's day

Smack alarm. Roll over. Go back to sleep. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Drag ass out of bed and to the Mount. Eat bagel. Make coffee. Read the Coast. Place a Scotsburn order. Pray taht they don't fuck it up again this week. Sell some coffee, pop, coffee, pop, Fudgee-os. Work on articles for Mount paper. Chat with Scott and that dude that I chat with every Monday and Friday (shit, what's his NAME??). Eat some curry that Angelah brought me (mmmm). Make plans for tonight. Discuss with Keith how bad we've both been about keeping in touch with people from Costa Rica. Email Alexandra and pretend that I've redeemed myself. Sympathise with people who come in and complain about being tired and/or hot. Notice that the freezer is no longer functioning (again). Call the manager. Consider drowning my sorrows in another (deeply satisfying) Simcity 3000 session. Realize anew what a dork I am (see the official taxonomy of misfits, below). And all before 2:30pm.

Bah.

The Misfit Taxonomy

Well, after much debate over our respective labelling systems, Mark and I have finally collaborated on the Taxonomy of Misfits (Official Draft).

Any comments or suggestions are always welcome; just post it here, or email me!

For future reference: I see myself as a dork (specifically keener) and an ecogeek. That is, of course, open to debate, but don't be mean.

In other news, I finally got my hands on a copy of HBP. have i emntioned this before? Anyway, work was slow yesterday, and as a result I am half-way through. For the record, Harry Potter's got the magic stick.

I went to yet another barbecue yesterday. Which gave Kenney a chance to see Adam for the first time in many moons, so maybe Kenney will no longer feel the need to come up with excuses to ask me about Adam. Oh my - what will he and I talk about now?

The important news learned from that experience is that Tofutti Coffee Break Treats are really good. They kind of taste butterscotch-y with a coffee aftertaste. And they're frozen, creamy, vegan-y goodness!

Then proceeded to Allan's for a small boozy gathering, where Allan's new girl inquired whether she had slept with me before. Just a typical Allan's-apartment shindig.

STIIIIICKEEEEE!!!!!

The Cornerstore has no air conditioning. Have I mentioned this before? Just a bunch of stupid fridges that produce extra heat. Good thing my job doesn't require me to expend energy.

So Marky declined to lend me his copy of HP & the Half Blood Prince...seems he wants to read it over again, taking longer than 24 hours this time, so that he can truly appreciate it. I think he's just being selfish. But my consolation prize was that since I was over at the apartment to beg for it anyway, Sean lent me Wolves of the Calla (Stephen King) and I'm happy. I have somewhat of an unhealthy fascination with those books...it bothers me to have to take more than one sitting to read them. Thus I am quite tired this morning. And still not even close to finished the book.

No "hard-hitting political commentary" today. Just a comment on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Canada: about bloody time.

Hippie-hippie Shake

And what I mean by that, is that my brain feels like it's gone through a blender. It's currently 11:37 am and the Cornerstore is bloody hot. I usually like the heat but this is ridiculous. Add to that the fact that I'm still sleep-deprived and it makes me a very cranky girl. Plus I'm bored because I don't have any attention span to keep me occupied with one task for any appreciable amount of time. And the shelf under the counter that usually serves as a footrest is borken and all the little paper bags keep spilling all over the floor whenever I absentmindedly try to rest my foot.

Although I didn't get the editor job, I've decided that I'm going to be a superkeener in terms of contributing to it. It's gonna kick ass and some of the credit is going to me. The bonus is that I can let my contribution slack when the pressure's on...whereas if I had gotten the job, that option would not have been available to me. Whee! Plus, B has expressed disdain and skepticism about the prospects of the new Mount paper so I'm determined to prove him wrong.

Allergyism

Yeah, I'm allergic to dust in a big way. And we just had a yard sale.

There's nothing like a good yard sale to make one reflect on how ludicrously materialistic our culture is (what, do you expect ME to NOT comment on this?). Impulse purchases, useless gifts that nobody really likes or wants but that are given just because gifts are expected, and then kept around unused for years because figts are not supposed to be sold or re-gifted...stuff that we keep around "just in case" because we're terrified of someday not having enough. Then when we're tripping over all our junk because we've run out of places to put it, we stick a 25-cent price tag on it and somebody buys it so that it can collect dust in their basement. It's fascinating, really.

Admittedly, I'm more anti-consumerist in theory than in practice. I just skip the plastic junk and electronics and consider myself better than other people. I'm working on that one. But today I resisted the temptation to visit the other yard-sale tables on my street and I'm proud of myself. No more junk! Well, Manda gave me a movie. But it's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I swear, I'm over Leonardo DiCaprio (who, interestingly enough, looks exactly like Billy H on the movie cover). But I am eternally in love with the work of Baz Luhrman.

Anyway, I'm off to partake of some fresh air that will hopefully relieve the burning in my eyes.

"Paris Keen for Keenan"

In case you live under a rock and haven't heard, the French recently created a monument to my awesomeness. It kicks the Louvre Pyramid's pansy butt.




In other news:

Price-Gunning Cashier Discovers Mysterious Rise in Price of Nerds

Universit Brochure Arrives from Auckland

Bad Singers Rock Sidelines Tonight

Pod Life

Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a leading role in a cage?

Blah. Maybe it's due to being somewhat sleep-deprived for nearly a week now, but between that, and being confined to MSVU-home-Adam's place (just down the street from MSVU)-the bus between home and MSVU, I feel kind of cut off from the rest of the world at the moment. I'm used to doing Sierra Club stuff and just generally being all over the place and engaged in what's going on in the world, but lately I haven't been so I feel kind of trapped. Worst feeling ever. But tonight I'm going to bed early and Tuesday night I'm going (woot woot! camping so I should get over it soon enough.

And right now? I'm learning Greek!

Rant

As soon as I published my post yesterday I heard about the bombings in London. Since then I've heard plenty of comspiracy theories...whoever did it, and for whatever reason, it's absolutely disgusting that innocent people are killed, and that innocent families are destroyed as a result, to advance somebody's political agenda.

My condolences go out to everyone whose lives were affected by this latest event. But while everybody's watching out for news on this latest attack, attention is being diverted once again from poverty in Africa...and poverty in the rest of the world for that matter...and a whole bunch of things that also really matter and are on a much huger scale and can be HELPED if the world would only pay attention to them long enough to actually do something. How about Zimbabwe's situation? 70% unemployment, 4 million starving people, the government is knocking down the slums and driving the poorest citizens out of their homes in the middle of (their) winter and call it "urban renewal." It got an editorial in yesterday's Globe, but most people have forgotten about it already. It's like in Hotel Rwanda (If you haven't seen it yet, SEE IT), when an American journalist tells the African who's trying to save his family and friends from slaughter that people in the rest of the world will see coverage of the genocide on TV, think "Oh that's terrible" and then go back to eating their dinner.

I'm a poli-sci student...I hear lots of complaining about the media giving shallow coverage to things. But aren't we also to blame? The media gives shallow coverage because we have shallow interests. Maintaining an abstract idea of poverty and violence and AIDS rather than seeing them as issues affecting real pople with real lives protects us from feeling guilty when we do nothing about it, even go about our business in ways that perpetuate the problems. But I'll try to leave my cynicism at that for the day.

In fluffier news, I had a really good beer yesterday at the Tribeca. It's called Griffon, it's made in Montreal and it's BEAUTIFUL. Bruno has great taste in beer. Go Bruno!

It's purple!

That would be my new shirt. Sale rack at AE, first article I've ever bought from that store. $9.95 plus tax. Good thing I bought it, too, because after about 40% of a litre of wine I ended up crashing on Ange's bowl chair and I needed to come straight to work from there this morning. So at least I have something to wear.

I also found APLLE CINNAMON POP-TARTS!!!!! Which I have been looking for everywhere, they're unforsted so they don't have gelatin in them. Apple-cinnamon Pop-Tarts are one of my guilty pleasures, when I can find them.

Speaking of food, I told one of my SU friends about the Crisper thing, and then she wanted to know what was in everything that she bought. So I told her and then she was traumatized and then another SU friend came in and said, "Alex, are you ruining food for people?" Hey, don't balme me - if people ask, I tell them. Sometimes I tell them even if they don't ask, but quite often they do. And a seeker of truth has to be prepared to learn things they don't like. Aaaaand i'm also a bitch. And a vegan. Anyone who hasn't read the "Passive-Aggressive Vegan Grocery Clerk" (see sidebar) is strongly advised to do so. Although I'm sure some of the humour is lost on those who are not passive-aggressive vegans.

Anyway it's early registration day so the store is sort of busy. Thus, today's entry will be short-ish and shallow...no hard-hitting (sarcasm intended) political commentaries this time. Ciao dudes.

"food" products

Somebody else got the editor job. Ah well, as long as she does a good job I'm happy...and as long as Angelah doesn't hire too many people for the store in the fall, I'll be making more money.

So I wrote off 52 bags of expired Crispers today. For a store this size that's a lot. Anyway I took a gander at the ingredients because that's what I do...you know, 5 years of vegan training and all. Those mothafuckas have a lot of weird shit in them. My mission this afternoon, should I choose to accept it (and I do), is to look up the ingredients of which I don't know the original source. And I'm taking you along for the ride. Here we go:

Sodium acid pyrophosphate: This would appear to be one of those mysterious chemicals that are spontaneously generated in test tubes, as I could find plenty of information on its usage but nothing on its source. Apparently it's considered safe for use in food. Good thing.

Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate: Could be made from milk products but not always. I know it also has vegetable sources, I learned that in grade 12.

Sodium Bisulphite: Not sure where it comes from, but apparently it's also used as a bleaching agent in the pulp and paer industry.

Ascorbyl palmitate: It's made from ascorbic acid, sulfuric acid and palmitic acid. Which, of course, magically appear in the test tubes.

Sodium acetate: Used as a runway de-icer.

Monosodium glutamate: According to Wiktionary, it's "the mono sodium salt" of glutamic acid, an amino acid that comes from plant and animal tissues. Best known for bringing to mind images of lab rats with brain tumours.

Annatto: A seed, used to colour stuff.

Sodium metabisulphite: Apparently it's not allowed to be added to wine in Australia.

Until sodium acid pyrophosphate grows on trees, I think I'll stick to crackers. Even chips - at least Lays are now trans fat free, even if they do still give you cellulite.

Job conundrum

I've always wanted the word "editor" in my job title. Now I potentially could...if the Students' Union reopens the University's newspaper editor position (highly likely since the lone applicant didn't even show up for her interview the first time around) and if I get the job. The one problem is that they want to have an issue done in time for school to get back in session...and because of some stupid ass stupid union by-law, a person can't work at 2 SU services at once. So I'd have to quit the store in August. That would mean that Angie would have to hire someone new, which wouldn't be so hard because the Cornerstore is a really cushy place to work. But I'd be losing out on a LOT of money because full-time hours selling chips pay way better than the monthly salary of the newspaper editor. As in upwards of $500/month more, which is significant for a student. Plus it would be a more stressful job during school. But amazing experience and a fantastic resume-builder and I'd get an office. Emphasis on the office (cue porn music). And I'd get all this amazing creative input into the paper. Kenney says that the writers are going to get lots of input this year, too, so I could consider doing that. But the writers don't get paid. Or the job title. Or the office.

Anybody know somebody who's hiring for August?

heat exhaustion

Or maybe just regular old exhaustion. Summer has begun, kicked off with a triple-BBQ weekend.

Friday Chris and I headed to DeWolf park to do some Canada Day volunteeryness for Shinerama (University fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis). It was rainy and crappy and we waited around for 1 1/2 hours until we figured the other people who were supposed to meet us there were DEFINITELY not coming. they then proceeded to call us at 1pm (when we would have been DONE) to inform us that our event was cancelled. Hmm. So then we did the barbecue thing at his house.

Saturday I had my barbecue/tie-dye party/backyard shindig. It was really relaxing despite the constant digs at vegetarians made by certain individuals present, and there was tie-dying and Scattergories (oh God i'm such a DORK!!!) and a bunch of people sitting around shooting the shit and it was a good day.

Today I went to Clam Harbour with Yin and a bunch of his friends for a barbecue on the beach (I love the beach) and I played soccer with the boys. Eventually I accidentally fell asleep (we were there for about 6 hours, okay?) so I got back too late to go to Chris's sermon and I feel really shitty about that because I said I would go.

It is now 10:45 pm and I'm sitting in my bedroom with tan lines on my back and Dar Williams in my computer speakers and whole-wheat spaghetti in my belly, and I'm pretty content. Going to bed soon, because I was going to study for the LSATS but my brain can't handle it right now. Looking at law schools abroad, and I don't think the LSATS even count for anything outside of North America so I could be wasting my time. But I suppose I could surprise myself and end up happily studying on my own continent. End of tangent. Good night.